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If you stroll through the Little Saigon area of Westminster, you'll notice that many of the shops display posters of the gentle-faced Vietnamese pop icon, Duy Quang.
The 62-year-old singer died of lung cancer Wednesday at a Fountain Valley hospital after he returned from Vietnam to receive medical treatment last month.
Vietnamese Americans harbor fond memories of Quang's honey-sweet love ballads and nostalgic folk tunes.
"The community has been playing his records more and putting his albums up in store windows," said Anh Do, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
Fans gathered around their beloved icon upon hearing of his illness.
“About a couple weeks ago, his friend in Orange County organized a big event for him to remember him during the time that he was very sick," said Thai Dinh, an editor for Orange County’s daily Vietnamese-language newspaper, Nguoi Viet. "And the posters are still now posted in the windows of some shops, and even in my office now they have some posters of Duy Quang.”
Quang rose to fame in Vietnam as a young man during the 1960s. Following in the footsteps of his father, Pham Duy, Quang became a pop music icon.
In 1978, he and his family left — first for France, then to the growing Vietnamese concentration in Orange County. He continued his musical career in the States.
Quang stirred up some controversy when he returned to Vietnam a few years ago. Many anti-Communist Vietnamese emigrants crticized him for visiting the country from which they had fled.
But the pop icon still made a lasting impression on the Vietnamese music scene. His albums have been a huge success around the world.
Musical talent runs in Quang's family. His mother was a pop diva before she died in 1999. He and his siblings created a successful band in the 1970s. People still remember his 91-year-old father as one of the most prolific and popular musicians in Vietnamese history.
His tightly-knit family lives in Westminster's Little Saigon. Plans for services are pending.
Correction: An earlier version of this story reported Quang's age incorrectly.